The Swap(63)

Freya had warned me about Jamie. “There’s something you need to know. . . .”

I knew everything, of course, but I looked at her with wide, innocent eyes, tilting my head like a curious puppy.

“Jamie’s got this crazy idea that Maggie should live with her and Brian.”

“Oh my god. Why?”

“Because she’s delusional. And dangerous. You know she can’t get pregnant, so now she’s obsessed with my baby. You need to keep Maggie away from her. If she shows up here, call the police. And then call Max and me.”

If Freya found out I’d taken the baby anywhere near Jamie, I’d be fired. And kicked out of her home. And banished from her life. And if she found out I provided a sample of her daughter’s DNA . . . Well, I wasn’t sure what Freya was capable of. I just knew I had to be very careful.

And then, one morning, Freya announced that she was going away.

“Away where?” I demanded. Maggie wasn’t even a month old. Freya had only recently started leaving the house. Now she was taking a fucking vacation?

“One of my old friends is having a bachelorette weekend in Sonoma.”

“But all your old friends turned on you.”

“She’s using me to bump up her Insta, but I don’t care. I really need a break from all of this.”

All of what? I wanted to ask. I did everything around the house and everything for the baby. Freya spent her days getting massages and laser treatments. Now she needed wine tasting and fine dining? But I bit my tongue and fed Maggie a bottle while Freya packed.

Max announced that he would take his wife to the airport on the mainland. “I’ll get the last ferry back tonight,” he said. “I’ll be home by seven.”

“Fine,” I snapped, unable to keep the hurt out of my voice. I felt abandoned by them both. I felt like the hired help—which technically I was, but not for much longer.

Max didn’t seem to notice. “Does Maggie have everything she needs? Diapers? Formula?”

“She’ll be fine,” I grumbled.

Freya hugged me goodbye at the door, long and tight. “Thanks for taking care of the baby.” She released me and held both my hands in hers. “Honestly, Low, if you weren’t here supporting me and helping me through all this, I’d probably kill myself.”

Max picked up his wife’s suitcase. “Don’t say that.”

She kept her eyes on me. “It’s true. I’d throw myself off a cliff into the ocean. I couldn’t take it. All the hormones and the baby’s crying and neediness. You’ve saved my life, hon. Literally.”

If Max wasn’t hovering, watching us, she would have kissed me again. I could feel the energy between us, the pull of attraction. And my resentment melted away in the face of her tribute. How could I be angry when she was articulating every word I needed to hear? I was essential to her survival. She would die without me.

“Have a good trip,” I said. She gave me a last, quick hug and they left.

? ? ?

Their absence gave me an opportunity to deliver Maggie’s DNA sample to Jamie. I fetched the car seat from the garage and dropped the tube into the diaper bag. Maggie had yet to be taken on an outing, but I was familiar with the backward-facing safety device. I popped her into the seat, adjusted the straps, and installed her in the backseat of my truck. Then I drove to Hawking Mercantile.

The plastic bucket seat bumped against my shin as I walked into the shop. Jamie was with a customer, but her eyes widened when she saw me. Her gaze flitted to the baby, and I saw her swallow. She hurriedly rang up the woman’s purchase—one of Freya’s bud vases—and expediently wrapped it in natural-colored tissue paper. Jamie’s hands were shaking as she handed the brown paper bag to the customer and watched her leave. As soon as the elderly woman had gone, Jamie rushed over to us.

“You came,” she said, stating the obvious. But she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were on the little girl snoozing peacefully on the floor. Jamie knelt down and spoke softly to her.

“Hello, honey.” She gently stroked her downy head. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

Maggie didn’t stir, even as Jamie touched her cheeks, her hands, her feet. I could see the emotion in Jamie’s eyes, hear it in her voice as she murmured sweet words to the sleeping child. It was getting to be a bit sappy, so I broke in.

“I brought the swab.” I reached into the diaper bag and extracting the sample.

Jamie stood. “Thank you. You’ll never know what this means to me.”

“Don’t tell Freya I did this,” I said. “Ever.”

“I won’t. If you promise not to tell Brian.”

“Brian?”

“He wants to do everything by the book. He wants to get a lawyer, and go to court, and have a judge demand a paternity test. But I can’t wait that long.”

“But how will you get his DNA if he’s not in on this?”

Jamie gave a sheepish smile. “Deep sleeper. Mouth breather.”

She was that determined. That desperate.

“Once Freya sees these results, once she knows for sure that Maggie is Brian’s child . . . I think she’ll be reasonable. All we want is access. We’re not trying to steal her away from her mother.”

“I hope you’re right,” I said, hoisting the car seat. “I’d better get Maggie home before she gets hungry.”